Used price: $0.90
Collectible price: $3.50
Buy one from zShops for: $3.48
Used price: $129.00
However, since this book contains so many pictures and is printed on very glossy stock be sure to bring a noseclip to your reading sessions! I got the impression the ink wasn't quite dry when they shipped it.
Other than that, enjoy.
Used price: $29.95
Buy one from zShops for: $37.73
- Real good chapters on Enterprise Messaging using XML & JMS, Distributed transaction scenarios, Microsoft COM & Java Integration, Security concepts. It really impressed me with re-usable code for XML Messaging and 2PC/Transactions.
- J2EE Connector Architecture and the example scenarios are well presented with comparisons to JDBC.
- Cool chapters with Java XML based EAI examples focussing on how-to-do Data exchange, Transformation and Integration with heterogeneous applications.
EAI Theory chapters (Ch.1, 2 & 4) are boring!...Who cares. But the code examples are awesome in the later chapters.
I would recommend it as an ultimate book for J2EE 1.3 based application integration developers who want real-world code examples. It's definitely worth a buy as a J2EE 1.3 development guide and also as a solution book.
This book has been very helpful for me especially to understand XML, JMS and distributed transactions using J2EE components. The examples are really cool. The book is very much targeted to BEA Weblogic users! I think so...!
Overall the chapters and examples are great and it is definitely worth a buy.
Used price: $3.47
Collectible price: $18.01
Buy one from zShops for: $3.60
List price: $17.99 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $11.91
Buy one from zShops for: $11.94
Rick applies principles of Jesus and His character - to the 21st century mind and heart. I highly recommend his book. But even more, to the leader who's seeking to discover authenticity, I recommend you go to one of Rick's Purpose Driven Church conferences - and check him out in real life.
I only wish that I had known what Rick is teaching, when I was in my first small rural congregation in North Dakota. Rick's pastoral leadership and congregational paradigms aren't just for larger churches. I'm spreading them to every pastor I meet - and most are stopping to listen because they are eager for practical experiments.
I've applied Warren's classes and teachings using some adaptations of my own slants of theology, and when I change, God uses me to change my congregation. We've grown from 95 to 265 in attendance over the past three years, and expect the multiplication process to intensify as we continue to be more and more Purpose Driven - for Jesus sake.
For myself as a mainline trained Pastor, I believe that Warren's theology is a challenge to do something with our Pastoral leadership lives, as radical as Jesus did with his - on the foundation of Grace.
I believe that Rick Warren, without his even knowing it - is the Martin Luther of the New Millenium. He IS leading the way in encouraging Christians to go with what the Spirit is telling them in their hearts - when they admit that their traditions aren't something they can easily explain to their unchurched neighbors.
The book is written in a clear, easy-to-read, and relevant style. As a missionary in training who hopes to plant churches cross-culturally in the future, I appreciated the principles given in the first few chapters of the book. The rest of the book is focused more on how to apply these principles to church planting in a Western context. I am going to take some of these principles and apply them to how I do church planting in Asia, but I will not be able to follow most of the models and examples given in the book. Again, this is a great book for anyone wanting to be involved with the local church (especially in America). I would recommend it to anyone.
List price: $13.00 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $8.71
Buy one from zShops for: $7.95
The most important teaching from this book was that you can't settle for simply "satisfied" customers. Service expectations are often so low that people claim to be satisfied when indeed they are not. This leaves you vulnerable to any competitor that merely raises the bar on service. This is not rocket science. Like the rest of the book, the advice given is practical albeit simplistic.
Raving Fans suffers from a lack of real-world examples. The fictional stories are handy for getting one to think about creative service ideas. Unfortunately, there is a lack of supporting details to show how these ideas translate to profitability. You can't grab onto these ideas and say to a doubting associate; "Of course this can work. This is just how (insert name of real business here) did it!"
If you don't have much time to read about customer service ideas, I would pass on this book and go directly to Carl Sewell's book "Customers for Life". Sewell owns a real business and discusses the real-world issues of increasing customer service levels including compensation incentives, costs, service abuses and bottom line results. I felt that Sewell's book was a much better value for the time invested.
First off, the book basically talks about customer service (vs. goal setting & reward/punishment in the one minute manager) and how companies need to offer exemplary service to create Raving Fans, as the authors title it. I was simply hoping to get one good idea/thought out of the book and I did. It was EXCEPTIONALLY easy to read, as I read the 132 pages in about 2.5 - 3 hours total. The book has a lot of dead space and big font so you aren't getting tons of "filler." The authors try to focus on one business issue and address it succinctly.
This book is good and bad depending on what you expect to get out of it.
It is good because (1) anyone can read this book (2) customer service is horrible in today's environment so it is timely (3) The book provides great illustrations and (4) The authors get the point across.
Having said that, they never talk about the business implications of what the characters do. They say that customers love their service or product but they negate to talk about the cost implications. Business is about making money, not being loved by everyone. I love great service and all the frills but, at the end of the day, I have to make it worth the investment to the business owner.
Yes, our economy is very much about selling an experience to someone, but there are cost implications to having carpeted floors in grocery stores and full service gas stations that don't price their gas more expensively. There are implications to buying a product at another store and selling it at the exact same price to your customer (what about the price of labor?) In that case you are actually LOSING money, except that the customer is happy.....
At the end of the day profits pay for the labor, rent, etc. Businesses have to make money and this part is really neglected in this book.
I love that they focus on the customer and finding out what their needs are but they negate to mention where people are in the food chain. What does the customer value the most? Is your business positioned to offer it? Do you offer headaches or tons of value to the customer are a few questions I think of daily?
If anyone is looking for a great business book check out The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker as it is the best book I have read on management and the role of managers, businesses and individuals within a business. Your money and time would be better spent on that book.
Through this parable the manager and the reader learn there are three rules for making your customers "Raving Fans". First, decide what you want. Second, discover what the customer wants. Third, deliver plus one.
Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles have done an excellent job of boiling down excellent customer service to its essence. The rules are easy to read and simple to understand. But, like most things of consequence they will take time to master. This book is well worth the hour or two it will take to read.
However, delivering excellent service is only part of the equation. To have a truly profitable well-run organization you also need to have excellent leadership, a highly motivated team, and value-driven goals. While this book touches on these subjects it certainly doesn't do them justice. For a clearer picture I would also recommend reading "Gung-Ho!", "Leadership By The Book", and "The One Minute Manager" -all part of Ken Blanchard's library of leadership materials. All of them are quick reads, and amazingly informative. Together they create an excellent picture of how a successful, value-centered organization should be run.
List price: $15.99 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $1.75
Collectible price: $4.80
Buy one from zShops for: $5.00
The book does have it's moments, like the challenging endurance journey of climbing Aconcagua, and the suspense of if they even climbed the right summit for Mt Vinson in Antarctica. Since it is a book about climbing mountains, it's a worthwhile read, but there are far better mountain climbing books out there..."Into Thin Air" by Krakauer...anything by Heinrich Harrer. Frank Wells died shortly after the book came out from a helicopter accident while heli-skiing. The movie "The Lion King" is a far better and moving tribute to a great man than this book. Skip this book and resist the urge to climb mountains above your head for the sake of peak bagging and go out and get "Into Thin Air" and be caught up in the altitude.
The seven summits vary in difficulty. Australia's Koscuisko is only 7,310 feet and families regularly hike to the top. Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa is not a dangerous challenge. But there is also Mt. McKinley, known for its vicious storms; Mt. Vinson in Antarctica, mind-numbingly cold and a logistical nightmare, and then the one Dick Bass christened "The Big Mother," Mt. Everest.
This is their story, and it is inspiring. Before it is over, you feel as if Dick Bass is one of your best friends. He combines high good humor, tenacity and perseverance. The man is a modern miracle. Frank Wells is a more reserved, executive type, an excellent organizer with will power to spare.
Rick Ridgeway, a writer and world-class climber, tells the story. The pace is good while they are on the mountains, and the book has excellent descriptive sections on the difficulties of the ascents. Unfortunately, Mr. Ridgeway does not have an ear for dialogue. Direct conversations have all the informality of a voice mail menu. There are unbelievable frustrations and red tape when preparing and mounting an expedition. I could have done with fewer blow-by-blow accountings of each and every hurdle that had to be overcome before the expedition could take place. This was especially true of Everest and Mt. Vinson. The last chapter is the successful summiting of Mt. Everest by only one of the pair. It is beautifully written and very satisfying. "Seven Summits" is a motivating read.
Used price: $6.25
Buy one from zShops for: $7.95
List price: $19.99 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $13.89
Buy one from zShops for: $13.10
It also includes a "Historian's Journal" which tells about the story's origin, and Atrus' Journal which is the journal Atrus gives you at the beginning of the game.
This guide is essential to anyone who owns or will own the Myst III: Exile game.
Whilst the pictures and illustrations are of extremely high quality the text is pitched at no older than early teens.
Adults should by Dr Ballard's "The Discovery of the Bismark" which is a fantastic book!